This study will examine the effectiveness and safety of raltegravir (isentress) when used together with lopinavir/ritonavir (kaletra) for the treatment of HIV-infection. Isentress is a recently, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved, HIV medication that has strong effects against the HIV virus. Isentress has been shown in other studies to be safe and well tolerated by HIV patients. Combining this drug with kaletra might enable us to construct a HIV regimen that does not include the more toxic drugs of the nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor class.

Eligible volunteers will undergo the following as part of the study procedure:

Sign the study consent form and the HIPAA Authorization Form.

Two-third of subjects, the intervention group (selected by random chance) will have their HIV drug treatment changed to kaletra + isentress.

The other one-third will continue their usual HIV medications (this will be the control group).

Make 9 study related visits to the Ponce clinic during the 48 weeks study period. During these visits, medical information will be collected, and blood tests will be performed.

Perform Dexa-scan on two separate occasions at Emory University Hospital Radiology.

Information collected will be used to assess the effectiveness of this treatment in keeping the HIV virus suppressed, how well these two drugs together is tolerated by HIV-infected patients, and the blood levels of these two drugs when given together.

RATIONALE: Virologic failure and adverse effects associated with current highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) warrant continuing search for novel combination therapeutic options. Raltegravir's (RAL) was recently shown to be a potent antiretroviral (ARV) agent with a favorable safety profile. If future reports continue to show positive data on this first-in-class integrase inhibitor, there may be a paradigm shift in the currently recommended first line HAART to regimens that will include integrase inhibitors.

Combining RAL with a drug that has a high genetic barrier to resistance, such as lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/r) may offer a number of advantages. Both agents are potent and should produce durable virologic suppression. Because their combination is reverse transcriptase inhibitor (RTI) class sparing, its tolerability might be superior. In addition, RAL is not metabolized by the cytochrome P-450 enzymes, therefore, a compatible pharmacokinetic profile is expected with this combination. Pairing LPV/r with RAL in early ARV regimens as is proposed in this application may provide a HAART regimen that is highly efficacious and durable, with less resistance and adverse drug events.

DESIGN: This is single center, open label, randomized, controlled, study designed to assess the tolerability, pharmacokinetic compatibility, and the durability of virologic suppression of the RTI sparing combination therapy of LPV/r + RAL. HIV-infected subjects who are virologically suppressed (HIV-RNA PCR < 50 copies/ml) on current HAART regimen will be randomized in a 2:1 fashion to be switched to a regimen consisting of LPV/r + RAL, intervention arm A (n=40), or to be continued on their pre-study HAART regimen, control arm B (n=20). The primary endpoint will be proportion of subjects with sustained virologic suppression (HIV-1 RNA PCR < 50 copies/ml) through week 48. The immunoreconstitution, toxicity profile, and pharmacokinetic profile of the RAL and LPV/r in this novel combination therapy will be evaluated.

DURATION: 48 weeks after the enrollment of the last participant. Enrollment is expected to take about 10 months.

SAMPLE SIZE: 60 subjects.

POPULATION: HIV-infected individuals (male and female), Age > 18 years, who are virologically suppressed (HIV-RNA PCR < 50 copies/ml) on their current HAART regimen for > 6 months.

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To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the Contacts provided below.
For general information, see Learn About Clinical Studies.

Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00700115